Reports of the death of ThyssenKrupp AG's steel business may have been greatly exaggerated.

Chief executive Heinrich Hiesinger, who has made a point of downsizing the German conglomerate's steel operations, said in an interview that he's holding on to, for now, key mills in Brazil and Europe.

The main reason: it is hard to find anybody who wants to buy a steel mill right now. "When people are asking whether we will sell...